


Ancient Love

by RakyKiki



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Action, Alpha Werewolf Derek Hale, Comedy, Eventual Smut, F/M, Love, Mystery, References to Teen Wolf (TV), Sad, Season 2, Supernatural - Freeform, Werewolves, alternative universe
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-01-20
Updated: 2020-03-15
Packaged: 2021-02-27 15:13:49
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Underage
Chapters: 6
Words: 17,702
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22339084
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RakyKiki/pseuds/RakyKiki
Summary: "One way or another everyone runs from their past, whether they want to admit it or not. Some run from an ended relationship, some from the death of a beloved person, others more simply just want to forget an embarrassing moment. These are all different situations that require different ways of escape.Rachel though had never wanted to run from her past, it didn’t matter how painful it was."Rachel finds her way back to Beacon Hills after eight years and she finds herself right in the middle of the werewolves world: what she thought was a normal city, soon becomes a way more dangerous place than she thought it might be.Set in AU, this story starts during the second season of the shows and develops it's own story from there.
Relationships: Allison Argent/Scott McCall, Derek Hale/Original Female Character(s), Lydia Martin/Jackson Whittemore, Stiles Stilinski/Original Female Character(s)
Comments: 1
Kudos: 12





	1. I.

**Author's Note:**

> Hi everyone!   
> I've written this fanfic 8 years ago when season 2 came out and I've lately found myself rewriting it.  
> I'd really love if you could let me know what you think of it.
> 
> Thanks!

I.

One way or another everyone runs from their past, whether they want to admit it or not. Some run from an ended relationship, some from the death of a beloved person, others more simply just want to forget an embarrassing moment. These are all different situations that require different ways of escape.

Rachel though had never wanted to run from her past, it didn’t matter how painful it was. She never wanted to abandon her house, her friends, her family. But when she was only a child, the destiny decided to destroy her normality for the first time, making her feel as if she had nowhere and nothing to anchor herself to. And when her uncle David, five years later, had told her they would have gone back to her childhood house Rachel got caught up in a hurricane of emotions she could not figure out.

After the endless car drive all the way from Texas, Rachel couldn’t wait to get under the shower and sleep as much as she could, so that she would have been ready for her first day at the new school. Once she got out of the car, the first thing that caught her attention was the building in front of her: of course, she knew they wouldn’t have moved back into her childhood home, but at the same time she was surprised that this house was… well, new for her. The outside walls had wooden panels painted in pastel yellow, the windows, doors and the wooden molding were white, while the roof, or at least the part that she could see from the street, was dark, a mix between blue and black.  
“It’s going to take some time, but we’ll get used to it,” said David optimistically.   
Rachel gave a forced smile to her uncle and walked up the porch. “I’ll go explore the house,” she said and without waiting for an answer she walked inside the building.

The inside was definitely more modern than the outside: the rooms were quite spacious, all painted with light and neutral colors; the floors were made out of wood finely arranged to create complicated patterns, and the furniture was still from their house in Dallas, which probably would have helped Rachel feel more at home.  
Her room was upstairs and it had two windows: a smaller one that faced the neighbors’ house, and a bigger one with a build in bench where she could have definitely studied or read a book. The view from that window wasn’t so bad either: you could see the back garden and the little path that could bring you in the close woods.   
After a long shower and a quick dinner, Rachel prepared everything she might have needed for the following day and went to sleep. 

Or at least she tried to. 

In her mind the images from her past moved fast: the afternoons spent playing with her friends, the long walks she used to have with her parents around the city, the holidays spent with the Hale family in their house. All happy and bittersweet memories, that soon left space to darker and sadder ones. Her father, John, died when she was only nine years old: on a stormy night a wild animal, probably a mountain lion, had entered inside their garden and the man had tried to make it go away, but the animal was way too scared and wild to understand that John meant no harm and he threw itself at the man, leaving him with no chance of surviving.

After that accident, Rachel and her mother moved to New York hoping to build a new life there and thing did get better, until the news of the Hale’s fire reached them. The Hale family was like a second family for them, Talia and Gloria, Rachel’s mom, grew up together and spent most of their time in each other’s company, and so did their children.  
Useless to say that the news of their death came as a shock to Gloria, bringing her in an extremely dark place, from which she never got out from and she took her own life six months later.

In the span of two years Rachel found herself without her parents, almost without roots except for her uncle, her mother’s older brother, a well-known heart surgeon. After that they moved to Dallas, where they stayed until David got a promotion and transferred to Beacon Hills.  
This mix of memories and emotions brought Rachel in a light sleep, that was abruptly interrupted by some loud music coming from the neighbors’ house. Huffing she got up and walked to her window, only to see that in the other house, in a room on the upstairs floor, a teenage boy more or less her age was dancing to the rhythm of the music, with the window completely open. Rachel tried to catch his attention, even shouting out a “Hey!”, but all in vain. She decided then to take a tennis ball she had found in the car earlier that day, and she threw it hoping to send it against the outside of the house. The ball though completely missed the wall and flew right inside the boy’s room, knocking some picture frames on the windowsill and making the boy jump un in terror. He looked at her with wide eyes and took the ball before disappearing from the view, only to come back a couple of seconds later, the music gone.

“I’m so sorry! I didn’t mean to throw it in your room,” said the girl leaning out of the window with her upper body. “I tried to call you, but you didn’t hear me. I hope I didn’t do any major damage.”  
The guy in the meantime had sat down on the roof outside his window, with a smile on his lips. “Don’t worry, the pictures are all completely intact! Unlike my dignity,” he said as he scratched his head, embarrassed. “I didn’t know the Atkins had sold the house. I’m Stiles, by the way. Stiles Stilisnki,” Rachel sighed happily and smiled at Stiles.  
“I’m Rachel Moore!” she said, and the boy smiled back. They stared at each other for a little bit, and the girl could observe Stiles a little better: he was wearing a pair of jeans, a t-shirt with Captain America on it and a flannel shirt; he had a short buzz cut, his hair brown, and big eyes of the same color. 

The cold wind made Stiles shiver and Rachel thought that it was probably time for her to go back to sleep. “I’ll see you around Stiles!” she said and closed her window. She fell asleep pretty quickly, Stiles’ smile one of the last images in her mind.

Beacon Hills was definitely smaller than Dallas or New York, but the size of its high school wasn’t. In the parking lot Rachel was staring at the never-ending building: there were at least three buildings connected together, spread over two or three floors. 

Finding her way around would not have been easy, she was sure of that. 

As she was walking toward the Principal’s office with her uncle, Rachel could feel a lot of eyes on her, voices whispering and wondering who she might be. She hated being the new girl, everyone always wanted to know her story, and she didn’t want to see the look in people’s eyes again when they heard she had no parents anymore.  
One voice in particular caught her attention: a few meters ahead Stiles was talking with another boy, dressed in the school’s lacrosse uniform. She couldn’t help the little smile that formed on her lips. At least in this school there would have been someone that she already knew. As she walked past them, Stiles locked eyes with her and tried to start a conversation, but was cut short by David that placed a hand on the girl’s back, making her keep walking as he looked at the two boys frowning. After a quick talk about the rules and her classes Rachel sighed. That day would have been endless: she had chemistry, Italian, math and English, followed by arts and PE. 

“It’s gonna be a long day!” she thought as she made her way toward her first class.

Stiles, on the other hand, was particularly nervous that morning. The previous day him and Scott had tried to follow the Kanima to see if they could find who was controlling it, but they lost its track in the woods. The whole situation was getting worse by the day: the deaths were increasing, just like the fear in the people and the nervousness in the werewolves and hunters. The only positive note of that night was the meeting with Rachel. Even from a distance Stiles could see that she was a beautiful girl; she had long brown hair, and it looked like her eyes were brown as well.

That morning he was trying to arrange his afternoon with Scott when he saw his werewolf friend tense up and look around before focusing his stare over the man walking beside Rachel.  
“Scott? Is everything alright?” he asked him, trying to smile back at Rachel. “Yeah, it’s just- that man. There’s something wrong about him,” answered Scott as he kept staring at the guy.  
“I think it’s my neighbor’s father. They just moved here,” he answered his friend, “We could sit together with her at lunch, find out more about them.”  
Scott nodded and then smirked, making Stiles suddenly feel worried.  
“Are you sure you don’t want to sit with her ‘cause she’s pretty?” he asked him, making him blush slightly.

Stiles shook his head and started walking towards the chemistry lab, trying to stop Scott from teasing him about Rachel.   
“For the last time Scott, that’s not it!” he sighed as he flopped down on his chair, placing his chin over his hands. He noticed only in that moment the chemistry teacher, Professor Harris, walking with Rachel towards the duo. “Mr. McCall, I think it’s time for you and Stilinski to go separate ways. Please, go sit with Mr. Mahealani, while Mrs. Moore will be your new laboratory partner Stilinski. I hope she’ll be able to help you understand at least the basis of my class,” said Harris before walking back to the desk.

“Teacher’s pet I assume?” asked Rachel ironically as she sat down next to Stiles. “I’m sorry he divided you and your friend because of me.”  
“Don’t worry, it’s going to take more than this to tear me and Scott apart, we basically have the same schedule!” reassured her Stiles, a big smile on his lips. Rachel wanted to answer back but was cut short by the professor’s voice that signaled the start of the class. 

The rest of the morning passed pretty quickly, and Rachel met quite a lot of people: Scott, Stiles’ best friend, had English with her and Stiles; during Italian she met Allison, Scott’s ex, and during Math she met Allison’s best friend Lydia.

Once it was lunch time, Rachel walked inside the cafeteria already full of students. She tried to find Stiles and Scott in the middle of the sea of people but since she could manage, she decided to sit in a table by herself.   
“Are these seats taken?” a boy asked her and sat down with his two friends once she answered. They were all dressed in the same style, with a black leather jacket and black trousers. They looked straight out of a gang.  
“I’m Isaac,” said the guy that had sat down next to her, “these are Boyd and Erica”.  
“I’m Rachel,” answered the girl, feeling a little embarrassed.  
“Are you new? I’ve never seen you around here,” Erica asked her, and she nodded.  
“I just moved here from Dallas, but I grew up here,” said Rachel and then took a bite of her meal.  
“Do you know McCall and Stilinski?” asked Boyd as he motioned towards the duo sitting two tables away from them.  
“Yeah, we have a couple of classes together. Stiles’ also my neighbor,” she said, and Isaac nodded. “They don’t look too happy you’re sitting with us.”  
“That’s because we don’t get along that well,” clarified Boyd with a half-smile, clearly seeing the confused look on Rachel’s face.  
“And why is that?” she asked, eager to know more of the matter.  
“Let’s say that they don’t necessarily approve our lifestyle,” Isaac answered mysteriously as he stared at Rachel.  
His answer left the girl with even more questions and slightly uncomfortable. There was something weird about them, but she didn’t know what. Eager to change the subject, she started asking them about school and their classes. For the rest of her lunch break Rachel kept feeling stared at, and she knew it was Scott and Stiles. She just didn’t know why.

“If he continues this way Derek will have half of the school in his pack by the end of the month,” whined Stiles as he kept frowning at Isaac and Rachel’s backs.  
“Relax Stiles, we’ll make sure to warn Rachel about them. For now, we have other things to worry about,” Scott said and Stiles knew he was right, but he just couldn’t concentrate on anything else that wasn’t Isaac and Rachel. Derek and his pack weren’t the safest people, well werewolves, to be around, especially when the peace between hunters and werewolves was at risk.

Done with her afternoon classes, Rachel finally arrived at the veterinary clinic where her new job was waiting for her: she would have to help the veterinarian, Alan Deaton, every afternoon and for a couple of hours on the weekend. Deaton was a dear friend of her family and the Hale one, and the girl was happy that she didn’t have to tell him her story as well. 

Later that afternoon she found out that Scott worked there too, and since there was two of them now, she would have taken care of the cats and the other animals that didn’t seem to like Scott’s presence too much, while the boy would have taken care of the dogs. While the doctor and Scott were busy with a dalmatian, someone rang the bell at the front desk and Rachel went to check it out. A police officer, around forty years old, with dark blonde hair and light eyes smiled at her. “Sheriff Stilinski” said the name tag on his uniform, and Rachel knew that he had to be Stiles’ father.  
“Good evening Sheriff, my name is Rachel. How can I help you?” said politely Rachel. “I’d like to speak with Alan, if that’s possible, thank you.”  
“Of course! I’ll go call him, just a second,” Rachel said before going to call the veterinarian and then she returned to her task while the two men went in the back to talk.   
From where she was, Rachel could hear part of their conversation: it was about some claw marks that had been found on several bodies; the sheriff wanted to know what kind of animal could have left them, but unfortunately Deaton could not help him; he had no clue on what it could have been. 

Rachel’s mind immediately went back in time to when her father died, and she wondered if it might have been the same animal. She needed to know more, she needed answers, but she couldn’t ask the doctor or her uncle. The police might have known something that they weren’t saying about these attacks, but it was not like she could just ask the sheriff. 

What she could do though was asking Stiles.


	2. II.

Thirty-six.

Thirty-seven.

Thirty-eight.

Derek kept counting in his head as he did another series of push-ups. Lately he had found out that the more he trained, the clearer his head would get. There was just too much going on: his pack was still not able to control their transformation much; the Kanima kept killing people everywhere; Scott still hadn’t accepted his offer to join his pack; and the hunters wanted more then ever his head on a silver plate after what Peter did to Kate. But the main thought that had occupied his mind in the past couple of weeks was Rachel. 

It had been eight years since he last saw her, and Derek could still remember well the day that Gloria, Rachel’s mom, told his family that her and her daughter would have moved away. He didn’t blame her, after all, it was because of his other uncle that her husband died, it was only natural for her wanting to go away as far as possible.  
But even if he understood her reasons, he never totally forgave her: he had always had a special bond with Rachel, since she was born he wanted to take care of her and protect her, to make sure she had everything she needed. Even his wolf was attached to her, and that’s why on the day she left he had told her, almost shouting, that he didn’t want to hear from her ever again, that he would have preferred she was dead, making the little girl, that was only nine, run in tears in her mom’s car. He was trying to protect her, in a way. If she would have hated him, she would not have suffered being apart.

So when two weeks earlier he received a call from David he didn’t know what to think. The man had told him to stay away from the girl, and Derek didn’t want to go against him of course, but he wouldn’t have been able to stop Rachel if she would have come looking for him. That’s why he had told his betas not to talk to the girl and to simply ignore her. It would have been better for everyone, she would have been safer and he would have had a problem less to worry about. What he wasn’t admitting though was that this way he didn’t have to deal with his feelings that have been obsessing him lately. 

Even with all his good intentions he still ended up going outside her house the night they moved in. She had changed a lot but at the same time she still looked like herself. Her hair reached her back, her face looked harder, just like her eyes seemed sadder. A little bit like his, after all. He tried to go back to his place, to just turn around and not stay there hoping she would see him, but he didn’t make it. He stayed at the edge of the woods, trying to keep his wolf part under control. Derek finally decided to go back to his shack when he saw Rachel throw something at Stiles’ house, and he didn’t want to risk the teenage boy seeing him.

When the following afternoon his betas came back from school, he could tell immediately that something was not right. They were too quiet, almost jumpy, as if they had done something they shouldn’t have.  
“I don’t get why you were so stressed about Rachel. She’s not so bad,” Isaac had just sat down on a chair when he said that, making Boys and Erica look down at the floor, wishing they could just disappear. The alpha turned his head quickly toward the beta, his eyes flashing red. “What did you just say?” he snapped and walked towards him as he sniffed the air and recognized Rachel’s scent in it. “We spent our lunch break with her, chatted a little bit,” answered the beta as he gestured at himself and then at the other two. “We even have a couple of classes together! We could form a study group and-” Isaac didn’t have the time to finish the sentence that Derek took him by the collar of his shirt, a growl coming out of his lips. “I told you to stay away from her!” he hissed, his face half transformed, “Maybe I wasn’t clear enough. You will not talk to her, or text her, or send her email or whatever. You won’t even look at her. Am I clear?” he ordered them, and the betas nodded, too scared to say anything else.

Derek really hoped they would have listened to him this time.

Twenty minutes had passed since Rachel had been sitting on her porch’s steps, but Stiles wasn’t home yet. She had almost given up, when she saw his light blue Jeep pull up in his driveway. She walked towards him, her hand in the pockets of the jacket.  
“Hey!” she said when she reached him and Stiles greeted her back, his lacrosse stick in his hands. “Do you have a minute?”  
“Yeah, lets just go inside so I can change out of my uniform,” answered Stiles and they walked inside his house. “Just wait in the living room, I’ll be down in a second.”   
Rachel nodded and entered the room as the boy walked upstairs. She looked around, reading the books’ titles and staring at the pictures above the fire place. There were some photographs of the sheriff with his son and his wife, some of just the sheriff and his wife, and a last one with just the woman. She wondered where she might have been, why she was not with her son, and a sudden and weird answer came to her: why wasn’t her mother with her, why wasn’t Stiles’ with him?

“What did you want to talk about?” in that moment Stiles entered the room, making Rachel jump in surprise. They both sat on the sofa and the girl finally talked after taking a long breath. “Today at work- I work at the clinic with Scott- I heard your father talking with Alan about some attacks recently made by an animal and he has already killed someone,” Rachel said frowning. “Do you know anything else that you father might have not said to Deaton?”  
Stiles wouldn’t have expected Rachel to ask him that, at all. He thought about lying to her, but if she would have known that the Kanima was dangerous at least she would have been careful.

“I know that they have no idea what animal it is, but that it is extremely dangerous and poisonous. Its venom can paralyze you from the neck down in a short amount of time and can leave you like that for several hours.”  
“What kind of animal can do something like this?” she asked, shaking her head. “I thought it could have been a mountain lion like eight years ago, but now that I think about it also back then they weren’t sure it was one of them.”  
“It’s definitely not a mountain lion this time. They did think about a mountain lion for last September’s attacks though, but then they discovered that it was only Peter Hale. He was avenging the murder of his family by killing all of the people responsible for it,” Stiles said and looked confused at Rachel, that was looking at him as if he was crazy.   
“Peter Hale? Like, Derek’s uncle?” she asked, her voice a little shaky.  
“Yeah, that’s him. Apparently after the fire he was left in a comatose state for like, six years, before he got out of it and started going crazy. He even killed his own niece, Laura, over some hereditary – are you okay?” Stiles stopped mid-sentence when he saw the girl’s eyes swelling up with tears.

She couldn’t believe it. Laura and her uncle had survived the fire. But what about the others? And why did her uncle lie to her and her mother? “I’m okay, I just… My uncle told me they all died in the fire.”  
“Did you know them?” asked Stiles, looking worried at her.   
“Laura, Derek me and Cora were inseparable. We all grew up together like our mothers did. We lost contacts when we moved to New York after my father died,” Rachel almost whispered, looking down at her hands as she tried not to cry. She wanted to ask Stiles about Derek so badly, but she was too afraid to do so.  
“Hey, it’s okay…” Stiles tried to comfort her as he placed a hand on her back. “He’s alive, you know? Derek, I mean.”   
At the mention of Derek’s name Rachel looked at Stiles and without any warning threw herself at him, hugging him as tight as she could. 

Stiles didn’t know what to say, he could only imagine the happiness she must have been in, finding out someone you care about is still alive it’s a big deal. He hugged Rachel back and let her cry until she needed to, caressing her back and repeating that everything was going to be okay.  
“I’m sorry, I’m not usually this emotional,” said Rachel as she broke the hug before taking a deep breath.  
“Don’t worry, I would probably be way worse if someone would have told me my mother was still alive,” admitted Stiles and Rachel looked at him, nodding. “My mother’s dead too.” She admitted as well, and they shared a look and didn’t need any explanation.  
After some moments of complete silence, Rachel got up from the sofa and gave Stiles a small smile. “I should probably go. It was a lot to process and well, I’ll have to ask my uncle for some explanations,” she said, and Stiles nodded before getting up as well and walking her to the door. “If you need anything, I’m here,” he told her.

Rachel nodded and thanked him, then walked home, her head working a mile a minute. She wanted to go to the old Hale house to see if maybe Derek was there, but she couldn’t now cause the sun was already setting behind the horizon. 

She needed to find the perfect moment for it, possibly when her uncle was working.

That moment arrived the day after during the gym class. They were doing cross country through the woods, it would have been easy for her to just detour quickly to the Hale house. Coach Finstock would have never noticed. Rachel tied her shoes tight, put her headphones in and took her water bottle before starting to run. She let some of the other guys go ahead, taking her time and checking on her compass the direction she was going in. 

Once she was finally alone, she moved into the direction she checked the night before she needed to go. 

It felt so nice being back in the woods she grew up in. A lot of people would have found them creepy and unsafe, but she just felt at home.   
What she didn’t realize though was that both Stiles and Scott were following her. 

When his best friend had told him about Rachel, Scott was sure she would have gone looking for Derek, so they decided to keep an eye on her as much as they could. 

After more or less ten minutes of running, Rachel slowed down to drink some water and as she looked on her right, she saw a short brick wall with a rusty lantern on it. She immediately recognized it.

That brick wall used to be the fence of her childhood house.

The building was not there anymore, it had been demolished after they moved away, and Rachel wished it was.  
She would have loved to go back inside those walls, see all of those familiar objects and breath in its particular scent. 

She shook her head and started running again, making her way more into the woods until she reached her destination. 

The skeleton of the house stood where the once finely build brick mansion existed. Part of the roof was missing, just like some walls and windows. A cold shiver ran down Rachel’s back as she got closer. She took both her headphones out and stepped onto the porch, her hands caressing the burnt wood. She had so many happy memories under that roof, all filled with laughs, warmth and happiness. Seeing the house in that condition was totally heartbreaking.

After taking a long breath, Rachel opened the door and walked inside.

All around her, everything was black and covered in dust; the warm, safe feeling coming from those walls was completely gone and all that was left were the damaged bones of the structure.  
She started to walk around the empty rooms, as she carefully watched her steps; the wooden floor creaked under her feet as she made her way towards the first floor, where all the bedrooms used to be.

In the meantime, Stiles and Scott had just reached the mansion when the werewolf stopped in his track, making his friend stop with him.  
“Are you sure we shouldn’t just wait outside, you know, to give her some space?” asked the boy and Stiles threw his hands in the air. “Sure! Let’s just wait here for her to get hurt or worse, for Derek to find her. I’d really love to- ”  
“Find who Stiles?” Derek interrupted Stiles as he reached them. “Why do you always hang around here, huh?”  
Stiles looked at Scott and shook his head, hoping that his friend would have kept his mouth shut and not told to the other werewolf about Rachel. Moments passed of the duo not saying a word and Derek was starting to lose his patience, when a crash coming from the house caught his attention, and as he ignored the two boys he made his way inside.

Rachel’s scent was everywhere.

Shit.

The werewolf didn’t even think about it and ran upstairs, seeing then that the door towards the attic was ajar. Of all the places he had thought he might have seen Rachel again, that was the last one; they used to spend most of their time in the attic when they were little, together with his younger sister Cora they would play board games and tell ghost stories to scare each other. 

Not able to resist the urge to check if the girl was okay, Derek opened the door and found Rachel trying to bandage her cut ankle with some cloth that she must have gotten from her now ruined t-shirt.   
“Are you okay?” Derek heard himself say, before he could even think about it. Rachel’s head snapped up and her frantic eyes locked into his; the pain soon left space to the shock and Derek heard her heart quicken its pace.   
After what felt like ages, Derek moved closer and took away the bandage from the wound. “You need to make it tighter if you want to stop the bleeding quickly,” he explained and with secure hands he wrapped the cloth back around the wound.

Rachel on the other hand could not find her voice; she knew that the boy, the man, in front of her was Derek but she couldn’t believe it. Once her ankle was wrapped up again, she finally found the courage to speak.   
“I was trying to go in the attic and the steps just gave in under my feet,” she explained, and she let Derek help her up before giving him a small smile. “Hi…” she almost whispered, resisting the urge to throw her arms around the man and hug him tight.   
Derek, on the other hand, did not resist that urge and just did that; with a step he closed the distance between them and embraced her tightly, her hair tickled lightly his nose and she felt so small in his arms, but he didn’t care. “Hey, you,” he whispered in her hair, a smile on his lips as he heard Rachel chuckle.   
“I thought you were dead,” Rachel said, her face buried in Derek’s chest.

They stayed that way for what felt like forever, but after a couple of minutes the werewolf broke the hug and felt a genuine smile appear on his face. “Let me help you,” he said and put Rachel’s right arm around his neck as he wrapped his other one around her chest. They slowly got to the ground floor just as Stiles and Scott entered in the house, the human running towards the girl. 

“Oh god, are you okay?” he asked her and went to her other side to mimic Derek’s position. “I’m okay Stiles, I swear,” she reassured the boy and then looked back at Derek, “We have so much to talk about and-” the werewolf reluctantly moved away from her and shook his head, his expression harder.   
“You need to get that cut cleaned and your ankle checked,” he said and gestured to Scott to take his place next to the girl.   
“We can talk tonight. I’ll come by after dinner,” Derek said, and Scott could hear his heart accelerate.  
Rachel wanted to protest, he didn’t even know where she lived, but her attention went for a second to the thousands of questions Stiles was asking her and before she knew it, Derek was gone.  
The alpha used that little moment of distraction to walk out of the house and once he was hidden from the girl, he started to run as fast as he could.

And as far away as possible from Rachel.


	3. III.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello everyone!   
> I'm sorry it took me this long to publish again, but the chapter is finally here!  
> It is still unbeta'd, so I'm sorry if there's any mistake!  
> I hope you will enjoy it!
> 
> RakyKiki

III.

The ankle was not broken, that was a relief.  
That’s what the doctor at the ER had said, before giving a couple of stitches to the cut and making her wait in the waiting room for her uncle to finish all the paperwork. 

The Coach had been extremely chill when Rachel had walked toward him sustained by Scott and Stiles, and he gave his okay for them to bring her to the hospital. 

Her uncle on the other hand almost freaked out once they reached the ER and after a very quickly introduction of the boys he made her go directly inside the emergency room without having to wait. 

The perks of having a relative working in the hospital.

“You can go home guys, I’ll just wait for my uncle,” Rachel told for the millionth time to Scott and Stiles, which shook his head and crossed his arms. “We will go only when he will tell us.”

As if he predicted the future, David walked towards them, his working clothes still on.   
“Stiles, could you bring Rachel home please? My shift has just started and I won’t be able to go home for at least the next ten hours,” he asked the boy sighing.  
Stiles nodded and took Rachel’s bag, while Scott helped her walk towards the car.

They left Scott home first, and Rachel couldn’t wait to be home.   
“Are you okay?” Stiles asked her, glancing worriedly at her.   
“I’m fine, it’s just a cut,” she sighed, looking at him.  
The boy nodded and turned on the radio, the silence too thick for his liking.   
“How do you know Derek?” Rachel asked after a while, and Stiles almost jumped in surprise.  
“Well… do you remember when I told you about those attacks from September? Me and Scott wrongly assumed he was responsible for them, and for having killed his sister, and we told my dad. Then the rest was all downhill!” he tried to joke and laughed as Rachel looked at him with wide eyes.  
“You what?” she said and then laughed as well, shaking her head.

The rest of the car ride passed quickly and when they finally reached her house, Stiles carefully helped her get out of the house and walked her all the way to her room.   
“Here,” he said before taking her phone and saving his number in her contacts. “this way if you need anything all you have to do is call me.”  
“Thanks, but I’ll be okay Stiles,” she smiled at him and then walked him to her bedroom door. “I’m afraid I can’t walk you all the way downstairs. Thank you for everything, really,”   
“There’s nothing to thank me for! And no worries, I’ll find my way around,” said Stiles and winked playfully at her before turning his back to her and making his way downstairs.

Rachel resisted the urge to just collapse on the bed and slowly moved to the shower. 

What a day that had been!

After the shower she put her pajama on and then walked downstairs, the stitches on her leg pulling a little bit. She made herself a sandwich and she took a can of Coke from the fridge before sitting on the sofa with a book on her lap. The girl tried to read, but she just couldn’t concentrate enough, so she tried to watch some TV, but she ended up just staring at the screen without actually paying any attention to the program. 

It felt as if the time never passed.

She groaned and got up from the sofa; she took a thick blanket and wrapped it around herself before heading out on her porch with the plate and the can in her hands. Rachel lazily munched on her toast and sipped her drink as she played some games on her phone.  
Without even realizing it, she fell asleep all curled up in the blanket, waiting for Derek to show up.  
But he never did.

Rachel woke up some hours later and for a second she didn’t remember where she was. As soon as the confusion cleared from her mind she frowned, looking at her phone to check the time.

“21:10” said the screen. If Derek wanted to come after dinner, he should have been there, but the man was nowhere to be seen.  
Rachel reluctantly got up and gathered her things before heading inside and lock the front door. 

She was upset. 

And irritated. 

And frustrated.

She didn’t even know why she felt so angry, she just wanted to talk with her old friend that had told her he would have come.   
But apparently, he had changed his mind.

She flopped down on her bed, the light in her room turned off as she tried to fall back asleep. The more she turned around under the blankets, the more awake she got and after a while she took her phone and sent a text to Stiles.

\- Are you awake? .R   
\- Yep! Everything’s okay? .Stiles   
\- Yeah… I guess? .R  
\- You don’t sound too sure .Stiles  
\- ‘Cause I’m not. .R  
\- He didn’t come. .R

Rachel immediately regretted sending that last text. It was not Stiles’ problem if Derek had been a jerk and now she was pissed off.

\- Derek knows how to be a complete dick. .Stiles  
\- I’m sorry : ( .Stiles  
\- It’s okay… I mean, it’s not, but it’s okay. .R  
\- That doesn’t make too much sense tbh .Stiles  
\- Yep, I just realized that! Sorry, I’m just tired and upset. .R  
\- You should sleep. Tomorrow you’ll feel better! .Stiles  
\- Yeah… I’ll try! Thx Stiles. Goodnight! .R  
\- Goodnight!: ) .Stiles

Rachel smiled at her phone and sighed as she closed her eyes. She tried a couple of relaxation exercises, and before she realized it she fell asleep.

Stiles put down his phone on the desk and got under the blankets. He really hoped that the werewolf would have kept his word, for Rachel’s sake, but apparently the alpha thought differently. He made a mental note to himself to tell Derek something about this the next time he would have seen him. 

What neither Rachel or Stiles knew was that Derek did go to the girl’s house, but he remained at the edge of the woods, just observing Rachel as she moved in her house and then sat down on the porch.   
It took him a lot of strength not cross the street and go to her, but he already got way too close that afternoon, he could not risk her getting too involved or too close to him.

But at the same time, he could not stand being away from her.

When the house fell completely silent, Derek forced himself to leave and he slowly walked back to his shack. Once he got there he kept himself busy by doing exercising and training, but when even that did not help him he tried to read up more material on the Kanima. He did not understand why Rachel would not get out of his mind; it was a constant thought, always there in the back of his mind. It didn’t matter what e was doing or how busy he was, the moment he finished doing something her face would pop up in his thoughts. And he was being honest with himself, Derek was starting to get a little annoyed by that. He needed to find a way for Rachel to stay away from him and the only way he could think of doing that was to completely ignore her if they had ever cross paths again.

The rest of the week passed in a blur for Rachel: between school, her work at the clinic, studying and hanging out with Stiles she didn’t have too much time to sulk over Derek. The man hadn’t tried to contact her in any way, and Rachel decided to give him some space , but she would have not given up. 

So when that Friday night she was hanging out at Stiles house after an afternoon passed trying to help him with chemistry, she was determined to find out where Derek was living. Rachel took the chance to snoop around Stiles’ phone when the boy went downstairs to get something to drink. Luckily enough the first text she saw from Derek on the boy’s phone was an address with a date and a time. She quickly checked when that would have been and when she noticed that it was for that very night, she quickly gathered her things and headed downstairs.  
“I’m so sorry Stiles, I have to go. I completely forgot I had a thing with my uncle, and I should probably get going,” she said as she poked her head through the kitchen door.  
“Oh, it’s okay, don’t worry! I’ll see you on Monday then!” Stiles told her and she nodded before almost sprinting out of the house.

Rachel quickly got to her room and changed clothes, deciding to wear a pair of black jeans and a red jumper. She thought about putting some make up on and went for a really light and simple concealer plus mascara look, just so she would not look like a dead zombie. Then she made something to eat as she waited for Stiles to leave his house; she wouldn’t have followed him, but this way she would have known when she should have gone out as well. That night was perfect for her plan since her uncle was out of town and she would have been free to leave the house whenever; there was also a full moon, and Rachel, since she was younger, had loved the way it looked when the moonlight reflected over everything.

When the time finally came, Rachel called a taxi and found herself in the backseat, eager to reach her destination. She started to think that she had the wrong address, cause they were in a pretty industrial area, when she spotted Stiles’ jeep parked at the side of the road. She told the taxi driver to stop and paid him, before getting out of the car; she didn’t know exactly where to go, so she decided to wait by Stiles’ Jeep. 

But after more than an hour of waiting, Rachel started to get bored and annoyed. What might they be doing at that time of the night? And in such a sketchy place?   
The more she stood there, the more she started realizing that this Derek was different from the boy she knew once, and maybe it was not a good idea to wait in a place like that. She almost called another cab, when a loud noise coming from the building to her left caught her attention. 

With a mix of anxiety and curiosity Rachel walked around the car and started moving towards the building when the door swung open and two people ran outside incredibly fast. They sniffed in the air before one of them howled and Rachele’s blood froze in her veins when they set their eyes on her. 

She didn’t know how but she managed to make her legs work and started running through the labyrinth of little aisles; her ankle was hurting in protest, but that pain was better than being attacked by those… things. Rachel could hear them behind her, growling and snapping their teeth as they got closer and closer. All of a sudden something grabbed her by her ankle, making her stumble to the ground as a scream got knocked out of her.

What the hell was happening, and why were Stiles and Derek involved in all of this?

When she turned around, she froze on the spot. Boyd was staring at her, his teeth bared aggressively. But that could not have been the boy she had sat at lunch with. This creature surely looked like him but was more animal, wilder; his face even looked like a wolf’s.  
After the initial shock Rachel backed away from Boyd but came to a dead end, her back now pressed against the cold wall.

Rachel screamed. 

She screamed as loud as she could, hoping that someone would hear her. When she thought that her time had come with Boyd towering over studying her, someone lunched themselves at him, bringing him away from the girl. They started fighting but it looked like Boyd was not as strong as the other person. She soon realized that it was Isaac fighting with Boyd, but just like him he didn’t look normal. She immediately got up and tried to run away, but her path got blocked by an inhuman Erica, her yellow eyes stuck on her. 

A sudden loud howl echoed through the streets, making the girls cover their hears. “Erica, stay away from her.” Growled someone behind the blonde girl that turned around and threw herself with full force toward the man. 

At that point Rachel had no idea what to do, so she ran behind a dumpster and hid there, hoping that all of that would end soon.  
“Scott! Take her back inside and then help Isaac. I’ll take care of the rest,” said Derek.   
After a couple of second Rachel saw the man moving towards her; he looked normal, the same way that he looked when they were at the Hale’s house. 

But his eyes were red.

His expression was sad, careful, almost scared of Rachel. He offered her his hand and waited for her to take it. But she couldn’t; she was too scared and confused; she didn’t know what just happened and if she could even trust him.

“It’s okay, you’re safe now,” Derek said calmly and took a step closer and his eyes were suddenly back to normal. Rachel looked between his face and his hand and the took it, slowly getting up from the ground before following the man along the aisle and inside the building. 

When they reached the bottom of the staircase Stiles run to the girl, his face completely panicked.  
“Are you okay? What are you doing here?” he asked her.   
Derek moved away from Rachel and walked into another room, leaving her with Stiles and putting more distance between himself and the girl.  
“I… I was following you,” she simply said, and Stiles widened his eyes.  
“I wanted to see Derek and I saw on your phone that you would have met him here. I’m- I’m so confused Stiles, what the hell was that?” Rachel said and then sat on a sofa with Stiles flopping down next to her.

“Those were werewolves,” said Stiles.


	4. IV.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm so sorry that it took me ages to update again!   
> This chapter is still unbetad, so please if there's any mistake, just let me know.  
> I hope you enjoy it!
> 
> Kiki

IV. 

Werewolves.

That’s what she had just saw, what Derek, Isaac, Erica and Boyd were. And Scott of course. And half, if not more, of the Hale family. 

Rachel was trying really hard to wrap her head around that idea, but the more she thought about it the more absurd it sounded. 

When Stiles had finished updating her on that world and what was happening, Rachel looked around the room before concentrating back on Stiles.  
“But how- then what- who is killing all these people?” asked Rachel confused.  
“It’s called Kanima, but we don’t know a lot about it.” Stiles said and Rachel sighed. All of that was so complicated.

“All you need to know it’s that it’s dangerous, and the moment you see it you should run away and hide.” Derek said, his face darker than ever.   
“But it has to come from somewhere! Where did you first see it? It might be someone that lives in that area,” she said, and Stiles was going to answer before Derek cut him off.  
“That’s none of your business,” he said, and Rachel frowned.   
“Excuse me?” she answered getting up from the sofa and staring at the wolf.

The air in the room was particularly tense; Isaac, Scott and Stiles tried to look anywhere but at Rachel and Derek.

“You heard me. This has nothing to do with you, so stay out of it,” the werewolf snapped and started to walk out of the room, but Rachel had enough of that attitude.  
“It started concerning me the moment they attacked me!” she replied frustrated, positioning herself in front of the door.  
“That’s only because you keep going where you’re not supposed to go!” Derek groaned, his eyes locked into Rachel’s.  
“If you would have kept your word the other day we wouldn’t be here right now,” the girls said coldly. “Has it ever occurred to you that maybe I never had any intention of keeping my word?” Derek said calmly, and Rachel looked down at the ground.  
“I’ll say it another time, just to be sure: mind your own business. Don’t come looking for me, don’t come by. Stay out of all of this and I’ll stay out of your life,” finished Derek. He moved the girl to the side and exited the room.

Rachel kept her eyes on the ground and shook her head, trying hard not to cry. She put on her coat and without looking at anyone else stormed out of the building; the cold air of the night hit her, and she shivered, realizing that she didn’t know how to go back home from there.  
“Rachel, wait!” Stiles said as he joined her. “Let me drive you home,” he offered her, and Rachel nodded before climbing into the jeep.

The drive home was particularly quiet, and when they finally reached her house Rachel quickly got out of the car and stormed towards her door. 

Her hands were shaking so much that even the simple action of putting the key into the lock became suddenly difficult. She groaned out in frustration and threw the keys on the floor, before sitting down with her back resting against the door.

“Are you okay?” Stiles asked her as he sat next to her.   
Rachel looked up at him and if she was being completely honest, she had no idea of how she was feeling. In her mind the images from earlier that night kept going in repeat, with Derek’s words as perfect soundtrack to that horror.

“I don’t know,” she finally admitted. “All of this feels too weird, too impossible to be true. I mean, werewolves are real?”   
“I know, it’s a lot to take in. But tomorrow it will be better, I promise! You should have seen my face the first time that I saw Scott as a werewolf!” Stiles said and gave her a small smile before passing her the keys that he had picked up from the floor.

“How do you do it?” Rachel asked and smiled back at him. “How can you be so calm when you’re in the middle of all of this?”  
“The truth is, I’m not calm. Like, at all!” Stiles answered and shook his head as he got up from the ground, “I guess you just learn to face whatever comes one problem at a time. The bright side is that at least the hunters don’t want to kill me!” 

Rachel nodded and got up as well, her hands way less shaky.   
“Thanks Stiles, you’re a good friend.” She said and unlocked her door. “I’ll see you on Monday?”   
Stiles nodded and gave her an encouraging smile. “Absolutely! You won’t get rid of me that easily,”  
Answered the boy before he waved the girl goodbye.

The weekend passed quite calmly, with no supernatural event in sight, and so did the week after. Once another Monday came, Rachel was starting to enjoy her extremely normal life. She had bonded quite a lot with Lydia and Danny, hanging out with them when she wasn’t helping Stiles with chemistry over the weekend.  
That morning she hoped to chat with the boy during the chemistry class, but a pop-quiz ruined her plan and after that class Stiles ran to his next one, an apologetic expression on his face. 

When it was lunch time she sat with Stiles and Scott, since she had no intention of sitting with Derek’s pack.   
“So, are you guys free tonight?” Asked Lydia as she and Danny sat down next to Rachel, ignoring Stiles and Scott’s puzzled expression.

“I finish working at the vet clinic around six-thirty, but after that I’m free!” Said Rachel, a big smile on her lips. She looked across the table towards Stiles, hoping that he would say he was free. 

Lydia followed her eyes and grinned. “Stiles, you could pick Rachel up from work and then meet us at the shopping mall. We could have something for dinner and have a walk around.” She suggested and Rachel made a mental note to thank her as soon as they would have been alone.

Scott though shook his head. “I can’t today, I promised my mom I would have picked her up from work.”  
Stiles, on the other hand, nodded and gave Rachel a smile. “Count me in!” 

Rachel smiled back at him. She was really looking forward that afternoon. Doing normal things, behaving like a teenager.

No werewolf stuff, just simple mere normality.

“During algebra me and Rachel were saying that we could form a study group; we could include Allison as well. This way we can help each other with the subjects we’re not too good at.” Danny said.

“I’d love that! I desperately need help in at least two classes.” Admitted Scott and Stiles nudged him with his elbow. “You’ll be able to pass them, dude!”

After that, Rachel’s attention was mostly on Lydia that was talking about the spring prom and how excited she was. She kept glancing towards Stiles every now and then, only to see that the boy was doing the same with her.

Rachel really liked Stiles. He was funny, loyal, caring; he used sarcasm a lot, and always tried to help everyone. And of course, he was also good looking. 

So when she finished her shift at the clinic she was extremely excited for the boy to pick her up. She had just gone out of the building when she got a text.

\- Running a bit late, sorry! Stiles

Rachel sighed and sat down on a bench; she cupped her face with her hands and waited.  
Ten minutes went by.

And then twenty.

When thirty minutes had passed, Rachel almost jumped up when she got another text.

\- Something with Scott and Derek came up. I’m sorry! Stiles

Rachel frowned and texted back Stiles before locking her phone.  
She took a deep breath and then started walking towards the bus station. 

She felt so upset.

She had been trying to avoid Derek’s world as much as she could. She befriended Lydia and Danny, two of the most normal people she had ever met. But she also enjoyed spending time with Stiles; they had been having study sessions during the week to help the boy with chemistry, and usually after that they would order a pizza or watch a movie.

Rachel finally arrived at the shopping mall, after a very frustrated bus ride, and Lydia looked at her confused.

“Stiles couldn’t make it,” Rachel said shrugging.   
Lydia and Danny glanced at each other and then took her under their arms. “This is nothing that some junk food and some shopping can’t fix!” Lydia stated and made Rachel laugh.

They went through some shops, Danny looking for a gift for his boyfriend’s birthday, while Rachel and Lydia tried on some clothes.

Rachel had to admit that she was having a lot of fun; more than once she found herself laughing out loud, for no particular reason.

When they started to get hungry, they sat down at McDonald’s.  
“So, Barnard College? You’re really doing all this extra work to enter?” asked Danny to Rachel, completely shocked by the amount of extra-curricular classes she was taking. “Yeah, they have a really low acceptance rate, and I really want to get in. I mean, this year I’m only following a class more than you guys, and then working all afternoons,” She said and Lydia agreed with her, nodding. “My plan is to enter there and then join the undergraduate program for Architecture. Technically I could also apply to the general program at Columbia, but my grandma went to Barnard so,”

Danny stared at Rachel with his mouth open, completely shocked.  
“You could just said that and you would enter!” he said, “I mean, it would be a big advantage,” he added. Rachel nodded and finished her burger. “Yeah, I think I’ll mention that in the application. I mean, I still have time to think about it, but at least I can show them I’m really driven to study there.”

“I’m thinking about going to the MIT,” Lydia said and both Rachel and Danny looked at her puzzled. “What? I have the grades so far. And they don’t do the whole Ivy League legacy stuff.” She said and then changed the subject.

After that they finished their meal and left the shopping mall; Danny went back home by himself and Lydia drove Rachel back home.   
“I think Stiles likes you,” Said the red-headed girl as she parked in front of Rachel’s house. “He has been kind of obsessed with me for a while, but I see the way he looks at you. Don’t worry too much about tonight,” 

Rachel looked at her and nodded, not completely sure about that.   
“Thank you for the ride! I’ll see you tomorrow,” she said smiling and then got out of the car.

Stiles’ car wasn’t in his driveway, so Rachel assumed he must have been still with Scott. 

And Derek

Rachel groaned out in frustration and flopped on her bed.  
Derek had managed to ruin things even with her keeping her distance. 

She sighed and got up; she couldn’t let him ruin her day a minute more, so she decided to take some time for herself: a hot shower would have helped. She went into the bathroom and turned on the water, before going back into her room to get her pajama. 

As she stepped into the shower, she couldn’t shake off the sensation of being observed; she decided to ignore that and simply concentrated on the warmth of the water on her skin.

When she was finished, she went and made herself a tea, but that sensation was still there; she knew that she was alone in the house, but at the same time it felt like she wasn’t.   
“I’m becoming paranoid,” she said out lout as she shook her head.  
She went back into her room and locked her door behind her before sitting on the bench in front of the window.

The woods looked so peaceful, their dark shapes blending into the night sky.

As Rachel was staring at the trees, she tensed up when she saw a pair of red eyes looking up at her from the edge of her garden.

Of course she had felt observed, Derek had been stalking her for the whole night! 

She put her cup of tea on the floor and checked the time on her phone, but when she looked back at Derek, the man had vanished.

Did she just imagine him being there?

Rachel decided to ignore that, it was probably her tired mind playing tricks on her, and she went to bed, the uncomfortable feeling still with her as she fell asleep.

What Rachel didn’t know was that Derek was really there.

Right after the argument with Scott and Stiles on how and when test Lydia with the Kanima’s venom, he had got in his car and started driving, realizing only once he had parked that he had gone straight to Rachel’s house.

The place looked empty, aside from the light coming from the girl’s room on the upper floor. 

He got out of the car and walked around the house, following the lights that Rachel would turn on and off when entering and exiting a room. He just couldn’t help it.

Derek had tried to stay away as much as he could, but there was something about Rachel that just made him find his way back to her.  
He didn’t know who to talk with, who to ask for advice; he had killed the remaining member of his family, and it wasn’t like he was in contact with a lot of other werewolves’ packs. The only opportunity left was Deaton, but Derek didn’t trust him that much, even though his mother did.

When Rachel spotted him from her window, Derek hid behind a tree and moved only when he heard that the beat of her heart had become regular, like when someone is asleep. He slowly made his way towards the house and entered through the open back door.

“She should check that all the doors are closed before going to sleep, especially when she’s alone,” Derek thought. 

He walked around the house, exploring the different rooms and scents; it all felt so familiar, safe, warm, a sensation that the wolf hadn’t experienced in a while.

He reached Rachel’s room and slowly walked inside.

She was deeply sleeping, but it looked like she was having a bad dream; she kept moving and talking, not making that much sense.  
The werewolf sat on a chair and just looked at her; he could feel the wolf inside of him, it wanted to move closer, to wake Rachel up from the bad dream to tell her she was safe, but Derek resisted that instinct, concentrating on how nice it felt to smell only Rachel’s scent in that room.

For the last couple of weeks since Rachel had found out the truth, Derek had noticed how Stiles’ scent always had Rachel’s with his, and that had made him particularly upset towards the human, even though he knew he had no reason to be.

So when Rachel called out Stiles’ name in her nightmare, Derek found himself growling low, his eyes red, his inner wolf fighting to come out and every fiber of his body pulling him towards the girl.

“Mine,” Derek thought, his growl now louder than before.

That sudden thought made him snap out of the weird state he was in, and he quickly got out of the house; it was too strange, possibly dangerous. He didn’t understand what had happened, but he definitely needed to talk about it with Deaton.

After Derek had gone away, Rachel’s nightmare slowly faded away, leaving the girl in a quiet, dreamless sleep. She slowly woke up and looked around confused; she was so sure she had heard something hitting her window.

She checked the time and she saw it was still the middle of the night.

Rachel quickly turned her head to the small window, a human shape clearly visible on the other side.

With a shiver down her spine she pretended to still be asleep, the Sheriff’s phone number ready to be called on her phone.  
The person outside slowly opened the window, and clumsily fell inside her room with a groan.

“What the hell?” Rachel said when she recognized Stiles’ voice. She sat up and turned on her bedside lamp. “Stiles?”

“I’m so sorry Rachel! I tried to get your attention, but you didn’t notice,” said Stiles adjusting his shirt.   
“You could have called me?” she said back, a confused expression on her face. Stiles looked on the ground, embarrassed.

“Yeah… I didn’t think about that,” he admitted and then awkwardly shuffled from one foot to the other. “I’m sorry, really. But I needed to tell you as soon as I knew it,”  
“Tell me what Stiles?” she said, more harshly than she actually intended to.  
“It’s Derek. They think Lydia is the Kanima, and tomorrow they’ll try to test her with the creature’s venom. And if she will be immune to it…” Stiles said, and Rachel knew what he meant. “They’ll kill her,” She finished his sentence, and the boy nodded.

“Do you have a plan?” she asked him. “We could go to Scott’s house after school and keep Lydia with us, using the excuse of the study group. Allison will be there too, this way we might be able to keep her safe. During school one of us should always be with her, just to be sure she’s okay,” said Stiles and Rachel had to agree, that did sound like a good plan.  
“I’m in. I’ll make sure to never leave her side in the classes we have together,” Rachel reassured Stiles, a little smile formed on her lips.

Stiles looked at her and nodded, before gesturing to her bed to ask if he could sit next to her. Rachel nodded and she could feel the anger she had previously felt that afternoon slowly fade away. 

“I’m also really sorry for today,” Stiles said and looked down at his hands on his lap. “I would have loved to be there; Lydia told me you guys had fun, and that you were pretty upset,”

Rachel took a deep breath and then looked at the boy.

“I was upset, but not anymore. I guess… the next time we’ll have a date, you’ll find a way to make up for it,” she cautiously said as she felt her cheeks go up in flames. After all, Lydia did say she thought Stiles was interested in her, so she decided to take a chance.

Stiles quickly looked up at her and smiled, his eyes sparkling with happiness. “I would love that!” he said excited before laughing nervously. Rachel chuckled and looked at him, only to notice that he was staring at her lips, and she subconsciously licked them, her own eyes going to the boy’s mouth. 

Rachel could feel her heart beating fast as their heads got closer, the atmosphere soft and kind of romantic thanks to the bedside table lamp’s light. 

Stiles could feel her breath on his lips, his own heart beating a mile a minute, and before he could think too much about it, he closed his eyes and closed the distance between them.

The kiss was slow, gentle.

Stiles placed a hand on the side of Rachel’s face, his other hand on the mattress as a support; he felt her smile in the kiss, and he moved one hand on the back of her head and the other one on her side as she deepened the kiss, her arms now wrapped around his neck.

Their breaths grew shorter, the kiss getting slowly more humid and heated, until they had to stop to catch their breath.

They stared silently at each other, both smiling, before Stiles found the courage to speak.

“So…” he started and took one of Rachel’s hands in his. “I think I’d be more than happy to take you out on an official date. Romantically, as my girlfriend,” he said and Rachel nodded happily. “I would love that Stiles,” she said.

They both jumped up when the front door got shut and Rachel realized that her uncle must have come back from work.

“Okay, maybe it’s better if we keep planning tomorrow?” she said and Stiles couldn’t have agreed more, already on his way to the window.  
“I’ll pick you up to go to school?” he asked before climbing out of the window and onto the roof, sticking only his head inside the room.

“Yup, I’ll wait by your car. Now go, before he finds you!” she chuckled and gave him a quick kiss. Stiles smiled and carefully climbed down. He got to his room with a big smile on his face; he could not believe what just happened! He really, really like Rachel; she made him feel like he never felt before, and she managed to make him move on from his endless crush on Lydia.

Stiles got in his bed and sent a quick goodnight text to Rachel. 

\- Goodnight Stiles, see you tomorrow! R.

The boy smiled at the text and put down his phone.

He couldn’t wait for morning to come.


	5. V.

V.

Rachel quickly got under her blankets, hoping to fall asleep quickly. She kept replaying the kiss in her head, Stiles’ lips so soft against hers.

A knock on her door took her away from those images, and she sat up in her bed as she told her uncle to come in.

“Still awake?” he asked her as he stepped inside.   
He looked tired, and kind of upset, Rachel noticed.

“Just woke up from a bad dream. Is everything okay?” she said as she followed him with her eyes, the man walking all the way to the window and back to the door.

“Why was Stiles here?” he asked her all of a sudden, and Rachel widened her eyes for a short moment, before regaining control of her facial expression. 

How did he know?

“He wasn’t here, uncle,” she said trying to sound as honest as she could.  
“Don’t lie to me. You know I hate it when people lie Rachel,” he answered her, and the girl got upset. 

She still hasn’t told him that she knew the truth about Derek being alive, and in that moment, Rachel felt all the anger and hurt rush to the surface.

“You, more than anyone, shouldn´t be talking about lying,” she said coldly, her eyes fixed on her uncle’s.

“Excuse me?” he said, crossing his arms over his chest.  
“You know what I’m talking about! Did you really think I wouldn’t have found out? All the lies that you told me and mom?” she said as she felt a rage inside of her that she didn’t know she had.

“It didn’t take me long either! All I had to do was talk with Stiles!” she continued as her uncle remained silent, his eyes wide open fixed on her. “How could you lie about something like this? Derek is alive! So were Laura and her uncle! We have spent so many years thinking that the Hale family, basically our family, was gone!” she said in one breath. 

“I did it to protect both of you. They’re dangerous Rachel, they’re not good people,” said David as he took a step closer to his niece.

“Oh please! As if I didn’t know that!?” Rachel almost screamed and took her uncle by surprise. “Yeah, I know about what they are. But you want to know what’s funny? If it wasn’t for Derek, I would be dead by now,” she continued, as she thought about the night of the full moon.

“What do you mean, what did you do?!” David asked her, his tone of voice louder than before, almost panicked.

“I didn’t do anything. I just happened to be around loose betas during the full moon. And you’re wrong about them, they’re not dangerous,” she said firmly.

“You know nothing Rachel. You don’t know what happened. You can’t trust them, they are dangerous!” replied David and Rachel got up from the bed, visibly upset.

“I can’t trust them?! Derek and his pack had been nothing but honest with me! You’re the one that lied to his family,” she almost shouted at him, her eyes full of tears.

“Oh, you trust him now? Is that why Derek’s scent is everywhere around the house?!” he shouted back and Rachel looked at him confused.   
“What do you mean, his scent is everywhere? Derek has never been here-” she started saying back but got interrupted by the man.   
“Don’t lie to me! I can smell him in every room; the same way that I can smell Stiles’ scent here.”

Rachel shook her head confused; yes, Derek was outside the house that night, but he never came in. Or did he? And how did her uncle know?

“How do you even- wait,” she stopped, as a sudden realization hit her. How could he tell the different scents in a room, or how could he know if she was lying? “I can’t believe it. You’re such a hypocrite,” she said as she shook her head.

“Rachel, please listen to-” David started to say but Rachel interrupted him. 

“No! You’re a werewolf too! And you still keep saying they are dangerous?! Do you even hear yourself?” she said as she couldn’t hold back the tears anymore. Her uncle had been lying for so long and about so many things that she didn’t know who he was anymore.

“Rachel…” David said and took another step towards the girl, his tone of voice calmer.

Rachel took a step back and shook her head.   
“Get out,” she said and gestured towards the door. David tried to speak again, but Rachel stopped him. 

“I said, get out!” she said completely in tears. She felt like her whole world had crumbled down and all that was left was sadness and anger.

David looked at his niece and sighed, before getting out of the room and closing the door behind him.

Rachel fell down on the bed, tears running down her face. She didn’t used to cry that much, but lately everything had been so crazy and chaotic that it had become difficult for her to control all of her emotions.

She fell asleep curled up under her blankets and in the morning she got ready as usual and she made sure to avoid her uncle as much as she could.

When Rachel walked outside, she found Stiles leaning against his car and for the first time since the fight with David, Rachel felt better.

The boy smiled wide and greeted her with a soft kiss.  
“Good morning,” he said and opened the door to let Rachel climb inside. “Morning,” she said smiling back at him, before putting the seatbelt on.

Rachel wanted to tell Stiles about her fight with her uncle, but she didn’t know where to start; there were so many things that had been said, so she decided to go with the one that was probably the most shocking.

“So, apparently my uncle is a werewolf too,” she said after a couple of minutes of silence. Stiles looked at her with wide eyes, his mouth open. “What?!” he said and then looked back at the road.   
Rachel shrugged and looked down at her hands, before telling him everything about the previous night.

When she finished talking, they had reached the school, and as soon as he had parked, Stiles unfastened his seatbelt and hugged Rachel.  
“It’s going to be okay, I promise,” he whispered, and Rachel took a deep breath, Stiles’ scent all around her. They broke the hug and got out of the car.

“So, what will we do with Lydia?” she asked once Scott had reached them. “We have to keep an eye on her as much as we can. They will try to test her here; I heard Isaac and Erica talking about it.” Said the werewolf and Rachel nodded. 

“I have my first two classes with her, and then there’s Chemistry. I think that’s when they might do something, since we’re all in Harris’ class,” she said and the boys nodded.

“After school we’ll go at my house with the excuse of a study group. You’ll go there as I’ll try to talk some sense into Derek,” Scott replied and then looked confused at Stiles’ and Rachel’ hands. 

Since they had gotten out of the car, they had been holding hands, but Scott apparently hadn’t noticed. He looked at his best friend and smiled wide. “I’m so happy for you Stiles!” he said and hugged his friend, before bringing Rachel into the hug as well.

“Okay, guys I really have to go now,” she said as she pulled out of the hug. “I’ll text you if anything happens, otherwise we’ll see each other at chemistry,” she added and the boys nodded, then Scott started walking ahead to give the couple some privacy.

“Be careful,” Stiles said worriedly with a frown on his face. “I will,” Rachel said and looked up at him, before leaning in for a slow, tender kiss. “I’ll see you later,” said the boy, and then let the girl walk into her class.

During the first two classes Rachel updated Lydia on what had happened with Stiles, and the red headed girl kept asking questions over questions. When they reached the Chemistry lab, Rachel was still in the middle of the conversation, so she took the chance and sat next to Lydia. 

Of course of all the days that Harris could have chosen, it was that day that they had to do a switching partner experiment. 

She started the experiment with Lydia, and when the first round was over she reluctantly got up from her seat. “Watch out of Isaac and Erica,” she quickly told the girl as she gathered up her notes. “And if you can, avoid talking to them,” she added but then she had to walk to the desk in front of them. 

The class passed painfully slowly; they managed to keep the two werewolves away from Lydia, until the last switching round, when Isaac sat next to her and thanks to the perfect result of Lydia’s experiment, the creation of a sugar rock, he managed to make her touch the kanima’s poison when the girl took the rock coated in the venom in her hand and ate it.

Rachel and Allison, that were sitting next to each other, held their breaths as nothing happened to their friend. 

“It can’t be her.” Allison said and Rachel agreed. Lydia might have been a lot of things, but she definitely wasn’t a murderer.   
“You said that Peter’s bite didn’t work,” Rachel asked her, “what if she’s immune? That would explain why she didn’t react to the poison,”

Allison looked at her and then at Scott, that had eavesdropped the conversation; the werewolf nodded and then turned to talk with Stiles.

“That might be true, but I doubt Derek will care,” said the brunette and Rachel sighed.

She knew that Allison was right, but maybe Scott could have tried to talk with the alpha anyway. 

Once the class was over Allison went to her next class with Lydia and Rachel joined Stiles and Scott and the werewolf told her the plan: after the following class they would have met up and skipped the rest of the day to go to his house with Lydia, as he would have tried to change Derek’s mind and buy them some time and after that he would have joined them. 

That did sound like a good plan, so after the last class Rachel and Stiles walked up to Lydia and Allison.

“You owe me one Stiles,” said Lydia as they walked towards the boy’s car. “Why?” he asked confused and Allison shoot a glare at him. 

“Because you’re making me skip classes to help you and Scott with chemistry and history?” Lydia said, her eyebrow raised.  
“Oh yeah, right! Thank you so much Lydia, I swear I will repay you,” said the boy and then started the car.

They quickly got to Scott’s house and once they got inside they checked every door and every window, making sure that they were all closed.

At Lydia’s skeptical look, Stiles shrugged. “There’s been a lot of robberies here lately. And a murder,” he explained.

They went into the living room, Lydia and Allison sat down on the sofa and started taking out their books as Stiles and Rachel walked into the kitchen. 

“Everything will be alright,” said the girl as she took the glasses from Stiles’ hands. “Yeah, and we just have to wait until Scott comes back,” he answered and then kissed Rachel, before they walked back into the other room.

A couple of hours passed and Rachel didn’t like how calm everything felt. It felt too good to be true, that their plan would work without any problem at all.  
She was just about to text that to Allison, when they all jumped when someone tried to open the backdoor.

“What was that?” asked Lydia worried and Allison took out her crossbow from her bag. “Rachel, bring Lydia in the bathroom in Scott’s room. Close yourselves inside there, you’ll be safe there,” said the Argent girl and Rachel nodded.

She took Lydia’s hand and they ran upstairs, the sound of someone forcing the door in the background. When they reached the bathroom Rachel gave Lydia a skateboard that was in Scott’s room and then looked at her. 

“Okay, listen to me. Close yourself in the bathroom and don’t come out unless me, Stiles, Scott or Allison come, okay? I’m going downstairs ‘cause they will need help,” she told Lydia and ignored her protests as she closed the bathroom door. She waited for her friend to lock the door, then she took a baseball bat that was on the desk and went downstairs. 

“Where is Scott?” she asked as she walked up to Stiles.  
“He should be here soon,” he answered her and then looked outside the window.

“Maybe we can make it without him. I could shoot one, probably two of them; this way we will have to deal with only one left,” Allison said and Rachel looked at her confused. “You mean two?” she said because Derek’s pack had four members, not three.

“No, there’s only three of them outside,” said Allison and Rachel cursed; they were missing Isaac, and who knew where he could have been.

As if to answer that question, the werewolf appeared behind them.

“You guys should just give up,” he said and then launched himself at Stiles, throwing him into the living room.

Allison ran upstairs to protect Lydia and Rachel swung the bat over the werewolf’s back.

Isaac turned around and growled at her, but Rachel swung the bat another time and hit him on his knee, making the boy kneel down in pain. 

She ran to help Stiles get up just as she heard someone upstairs fall to the ground.

“Guys! The kanima’s here!” Allison shouted, and the couple shared a look. If that monster was there, it meant that it must have been Lydia, but even in that case, they couldn’t let Derek’s pack kill her.

They ran towards the kitchen, but Boyd blocked their way. “Are you going somewhere?” he said and took Rachel by her arm.

“Go Stiles!” she said and managed to give the boy the bat before the werewolf wrapped his arms around her.  
The girl tried to free herself but Boyd was way too strong for her. All of a sudden though, his arms quickly disappeared as the werewolf looked up at the ceiling.

“What the hell?” he said and Rachel looked up.

A giant humanoid lizard was staring at them, swaying its tail back and forth, before it quickly walked all the way behind them.

Before Rachel knew it, Boyd was on the ground, paralyzed, a small cut on the back of his head, and the kanima jumped out of a window, breaking the glass. 

Rachel ran as fast as she could, almost knocking out Stiles. 

“Where’s Isaac? And Erica?” she asked and Stiles pointed to the paralyzed werewolves on the ground. “Allison used some of the kanima’s venom on her arrows. Boyd?” he asked her as he walked in front of her as if to protect her.

“The kanima paralyzed him as it was escaping,” she said and in that moment Scott arrived from the upper floor with Allison.

“It’s not Lydia, she’s still in the bathroom!” said the girl and both Rachel and Stiles smiled.

“Now let’s tell Derek, before he decides to do something himself,” Scott said and threw the three paralyzed betas out of the front door.

They all stepped outside, just in time to see the kanima jump down from the roof and run away. 

Derek glared at them, his eyes red.

“I knew it was her! And now she’s running away!” he said and just as he finished talking, Lydia came out of the house running.  
“Can someone please tell me what the hell is happening here?” she said, and Rachel could see the moment that Derek realized that Lydia wasn’t the kanima.

“Everything is fine. They wanted to prank Scott,” Allison said, and Lydia looked at everyone confused. “I´ve had enough of this, I’m going home,” she said and walked back inside the house, visibly upset. Rachel quickly followed her inside. “Do you need a ride home?” she asked her friend, but Lydia shook her head.   
“No thanks, I’ll walk. See you tomorrow,” she said coldly, and hen stormed out of the house.

Rachel mentally cursed, she had never wanted to upset Lydia, let alone make her feel like they were all lying to her. But at the same time she couldn´t tell her everything, because she would have just thought that she was crazy.

Once she walked back outside, she noticed that Derek and his pack were gone, so she walked up to Stiles and hugged him. 

“Where did Derek go?” she asked, her face buried in the boy´s chest.

“They´re following the Kanima,” he answered as he wrapped his arms around the girl, a worried expression on his face, 

“I hope Lydia will be okay,” Rachel almost whispered, her worry for her friend growing stronger by the minute. 

“I´m sure she will,” Stiles tried to reassure her, “Come on, let me bring you home,”

Rachel nodded and broke the hug; they said goodbye to Scott and Allison, and together they drove back home. 

“Stiles, is it okay if I stay with you tonight? I don´t really wanna see my uncle…” Rachel asked the boy once they had gotten out of the car. She knew that her uncle had the morning shift, which meant that he would have definitely been home that night. 

“Of course you can! Come,” he said and with a big smile on his face he took Rachel´s hand and together they walked inside his house.


	6. VI.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm so sorry that it took me this long to give you all another chapter!   
> Hopefully the next one will come sooner!
> 
> If you want, You can leave a comment on how you're liking the story so far.

VI.

When Rachel had woken up that morning, she felt slightly disoriented; the bedsheets smelled different from her usual ones, and the pillow was definitely softer than hers, not that it was a bad thing. She slowly opened her eyes, the sun light filtered through the closed curtains, and she slowly took in her surroundings. On the light blue walls were different posters of bands that she didn’t know the name of mixed with a couple of drawings and pictures framed. Opposite of the bed there was a desk with a bookshelf next to it, and a computer open on top of the table.

Rachel slowly sat up, her head slightly aching. She softly massaged her temple, and then she realized that she was wearing no pants and someone else’s shirt.

Stiles shirt.

Slowly, the memories from the night before came back to her, making her feel less confused. 

After they had gotten home, Rachel had taken a shower and the boy had lend her one of his shirts and a pair of trousers. After that they had some frozen pizza, as Rachel opened up more about her past, and about both her parents’ deaths. It was nice for a change to talk with someone that actually understood what she had gone through, what that kind of pain does to your mind, how it can consume you if you let it do that. 

Stiles had opened up as well.

He told Rachel everything about his mother, about how the frontotemporal dementia had brought her to hallucinate so badly that once she even attacked Stiles thinking that he wanted to hurt her. That had happened a couple of days before she passed away, and ever since the boy had felt as if, in some way, it was his fault that his mother was gone.

Rachel had hugged Stiles for so long after that confession, trying to make his pain go away, even for a little bit. 

Then, after that, they had decided that it would have been a good idea to drink a couple of the beers that were in the fridge in the garage; a couple of beers soon turned into more, as they kept talking and sharing their frustration. Rachel opened up more about her uncle and about Derek, while Stiles had confessed that he kind of regretted having said no to the bite from Peter. 

So, all that alcohol explained why Rachel’s head hurt more and more, but she still didn’t remember how they got from the kitchen to the bedroom. She slowly got up from the bed, and saw that Stiles had slept on the floor, where a pillow and a blanket were now laying neatly folded. She walked around the room looking for her trousers, but she couldn’t find them, so she moved to the corridor, where she could hear someone, hopefully Stiles, under the shower. 

She quickly made her way downstairs and into the living room, where she finally found the trousers she was looking for. She quickly put them on and then sat on the sofa, placing her head between her hands as she started to remember more of the previous night.

After the pizza and some of the several beers they had moved to the living room to watch a movie. They did start “Bad Boys”, making it almost halfway through, before they had started making out. She remembered Stiles being on top of her, her hands under his shirt and his hands tugging on her trousers.

“I guess that explain why I didn’t have them on,” she thought and scratched her head, as the doubt that they might have done something more than just making out started to worry her.

Rachel then remembered things in flashes: getting up from the sofa and walking towards the stairs; Stiles stopping her in the middle of the stairs to kiss her as she took his shirt off; getting on Stiles’ bed and bringing him over her… and then them stopping. 

“I think… we shouldn’t do this. Not right now, not like this,”

Stiles’ words felt like a breath of fresh air for Rachel, as she remembered him tucking her into bed and spooning her until she fell asleep. 

“Hey! You’re awake,” Stiles said and Rachel jumped up from the sofa, her hand over her chest. She was so used to the silence that she got suddenly scared of the boy’s voice.

“Yeah… I was trying to remember yesterday night,” she answered and walked up to him, before wrapping her arms around him and resting her head over his chest. “Thank you, for well, you know…”

Stiles smiled and shook his head as he hugged her back, “It was the right thing to do,” he said and then kissed her head. “Come, I’ve made you some breakfast,”

Stiles broke the hug and took Rachel by the hand, guiding her into the kitchen where he had put some cereals and milk on the table.  
Everything felt incredibly normal and, well, human. That was the second time in the last couple of days that Rachel had felt that way, and if she was being honest, she really loved it.

Three weeks later

Time had passed quite uneventfully in Beacon Hills. 

Rachel had spent more time with Danny and Lydia; the red headed girl had told her she was hanging out with a guy from their school, but it didn’t matter how much Rachel or Danny asked her who it was, she gave them no answer. 

Things with her uncle didn’t get that much better, she still refused to talk to him unless it was really important, and most of the time that she was at home he was working anyway. This gave her plenty of time to spend with her friends and Stiles.

Now, even if at the beginning things with Stiles were going great, lately they had started to be a little rocky: the kanima was killing again, and Stiles often had to help Scott and Derek at the very last minute, which meant that sometimes he forgot to tell Rachel or cancel their dates.

That day, Rachel and Lydia were at the redheaded girl’s house trying to plan the Spring Prom. Rachel wasn’t on the committee, but Lydia was and she had asked her for a hand with planning and organizing everything efficiently. 

“Okay, so we only need to confirm the order of the chairs and then we’re done with most of this stuff! Then the fun part will come: we’ll have to decorate the gym and the school!” Lydia said excited just as Rachel sighed, feeling slightly scared by the big amount of work.

“Well, I’m sure you can handle calling the chair guy without me,” Rachel said as she got up from the sofa, her back cracking a little bit as she stretched it. “Later I have to meet Stiles, and I still need to get ready,”

Lydia nodded and walked her friend to the door. “Try not to worry too much though! And if he stands you up again, then go out with Danny and have fun without him,” she said, and Rachel nodded. She hugged her friend and then made her way home. 

When she finally got there, Rachel took her time with getting ready before she prepared the little picknick basket. The plan was to have a nice picknick in Stiles’ garden, since the weather wasn’t too bad. She packed some tuna sandwich that she had prepared that morning, some pasta salad, a couple of puddings for dessert and some beers and Coca-Cola. After she secured the blanket over everything else, and after she made sure that her make-up was still fine, Rachel walked towards Stiles’ house, where the Sheriff opened the door for her.

“Hi Rachel!” he said as he let the girl walk inside, “I was just going out, but Stiles is in his room,” Rachel thanked him and then walked into the kitchen. She put the picknick basket on the table and then walked upstairs, finding Stiles’ bedroom door closed.

“Stiles?” she asked as she knocked on the wood, a bright smile on her face, and she heard the boy ran to the door and then open it only a little bit.

“Hey! Ehm- What- what are you doing here?” Stiles asked her, and Rachel’s smile fell. “What do you mean? We have the picknick, remember?” she said and she kind of expected the boy to open the door. But he didn’t.

Stiles, on the other hand, mentally cursed himself. Of course, they had plans for that night, but he had forgot the moment that Derek Hale had climbed into his room, asking again for his help.

“Oh! No yeah, I do!” he said and he saw with the corner of his eye Derek shaking his head. 

“Can I come in?” Rachel asked then, feeling extremely confused. 

What was going on?

“Don’t,” Rachel heard someone else say in Stiles’ bedroom, and the boy closed the door in her face. Huffling voices came from the room, and Rachel took a step back the moment she recognized the second one. 

Of course Derek had to ruin another one of their dates.

Feeling upset and frustrated, Rachel put her hand on the door handle and walked inside, finding the two guys arguing by the desk. 

“You know what? It’s okay, I should have known better than to make plans with you tonight.” She was feeling so hurt and upset, not only because Stiles’ had forgot about their date, but because it looked like Derek was almost trying his best to keep her and Stiles apart.

“Rachel, wait!” Stiles run after the girl as she stormed out of the room and into the kitchen. “I’m sorry! I promise that I’ll quickly take care of this and then-” he started saying but was interrupted by a visibly upset Rachel. “No, Stiles. I’m going home,” she said coldly, and then didn’t wait for the boy to say anything else and walked towards the front door. Derek was standing at the beginning of the stairs, and for a brief moment their eyes met as the girl stormed out of the house.

Rachel felt so upset. She wanted to scream, to punch something.  
Or even better, someone. 

Preferably Derek.

When she got to her room, Rachel sat on her bed and called Danny to let out some of her anger. The buy calmly listened to her whining and ranting, until he stopped her from listing again all the times that Stiles had cancelled their plans. 

“You’re coming out with me tonight. Get dressed to dance, and I’ll pick you up in half an hour! And I won’t take no for an answer, you need to have some fun even without your boyfriend,” he said and then hung up, leaving Rachel slightly confused. 

She quickly got ready, putting on a long sleeved white lace shirt, a black skirt and a black jacket, and when Danny texted her to come out, Rachel took her phone and her keys and locked the door behind her.

They drove for twenty minutes, until they reached one of the gay clubs of Beacon Hills, the Jungle.

“Danny, I don’t think they will let us in,” she shared her thought with her friend as they walked towards the bodyguard. “Don’t worry, I know the security guy,” he said as he wiggled his eyebrows, and soon they were inside. 

The club was particularly crowded, bodies dancing against each other, feeling free and light. 

Rachel walked up to the bar where Danny ordered for them, with a fake ID, a couple of drinks and after they drunk them he took her by the hand and brought her on the dance floor.

“Try to have fun and don’t think too much!” he shouted over the loud music, and Rachel nodded.

She closed her eyes and started moving with the music, her body following the rhythm of the song. Music had always helped Rachel relax in the past, making every worry go away, and so did this time.

She kept dancing with her friend, laughing when one of them would do a stupid move or would accidentally bump into someone else. “Hey, there’s a gloomy hot guy that has been looking at you for a while!” Danny told her and Rachel shook her head, ready to answer him, but he stopped her before she could. “Oh, okay! He’s coming here! Have fun,” he told her and walked away with a wink, leaving Rachel all alone.

She didn’t care too much about this other guy; if he wanted to dance with her then okay, but that was all he would have gotten from her. She might have been upset with Stiles, but she would never cheat on him. 

All of a sudden a pair of hands appeared on her sides as the mysterious guy started dancing with her. For the whole song he didn’t move them, he just danced close to her, his chest against her back, and when the song changed he kept them there as they started dancing to the different rhythm. 

“You shouldn’t be here, especially not alone,” Derek whispered into Rachel’s ear, his voice low, almost a growl, as he tightened his grip on the girl. Rachel’s heart stopped for a second and tried to move away from the man, but he didn’t let go. “Let me go Derek,” she said and let out a little scream when the werewolf made her quickly turn around, his hands going once again on her hips, as he held her close to him. 

Rachel glared at him, her eyes full of anger, but she didn’t try to move away. The truth was that it didn’t feel as wrong as it should have, something in the back of her mind screaming for Derek to hold her even closer. 

“Why are you even here?” she questioned him, her eyes fixed into his. Derek stared back at her, his eyes a mix of red and their normal colour. He moved a hand up to Rachel’s chin and he lifted it up, resisting the urge to lean down and kiss her. He slightly frowned as he bit his bottom lip, his eyes going back and forth between the girl’s eyes and her lips. Rachel, on the other hand, felt frozen in the werewolf’s arms; she couldn’t move or think, her own eyes flicking back and forth between Derek’s ones and his mouth. She started realizing how handsome he had gotten over the years, how nice it was to have his hands on her and to be so close to him. She didn’t know for how long they stayed that way, but the moment was broken when Derek sighed and pointed towards the ceiling. 

Rachel looked up and her body froze.

Up on the ceiling was a half transformed Jackson, and he was scanning the dance floor for someone; then, all of a sudden, he was gone. 

“Get out of here as fast as you can,” Derek growled as he transformed, and Rachel didn’t wait for him to tell her twice. She started looking for Danny through the crowd, seeing then Stiles and Scott right next to the bar. Her eyes and Stiles’ locked for a moment, and she gave him a small smile before continuing her research. It didn’t matter how much she wanted to go to him in that moment, finding Danny was more important since her boyfriend had Scott to protect him. 

A sudden piercing scream caught everyone’s attention, and Rachel ran towards that direction. Danny and another boy were on the ground, conscious but unable to move. Rachel motioned to get closer, when she felt something touch the back of her neck, and suddenly she fell on the ground, her body not answering to her anymore. 

“Shit shit shit” she thought as she hit the ground, banging her head on the hard floor. Then, things started to get confused in her head; voices became distorted, the room was spinning, and her stomach hurt like hell.

When Derek saw Rachel hit the ground, he didn’t think twice and stopped following Jackson to help her, but something wasn’t right, because the moment that he picked her up, she started throwing up a black liquid, and none of the people, or werewolves, that had gotten paralyzed before had ever done that.

He quickly brought her outside of the club, where Scott and Stiles were waiting for him. “I’m bringing her to Deaton, something is not right,” he told them, and as if to demonstrate that, Rachel threw up again, making Scott and Stiles move back to not get hit by it.

Derek didn’t wait for either of the boys to agree to his plan and he put Rachel inside his car before driving as fast as he could towards the veterinary clinic. Something inside of him was hurting as he saw Rachel that way, he needed to make her feel better.

Once he reached the building, he took the girl in his arms and run inside.

“I’m sorry, but we are closed- ” Deaton greeted them but stopped the moment he saw an unconscious Rachel into the werewolf’s arms.  
“Quick, put her on the table,” he instructed Derek, as followed them inside the exam room. “What happened?”

Derek gently put Rachel down and then took a step back, allowing the veterinarian to get a look at her. He explained him everything, from the kanima’s cut on her neck to the black vomit. 

“She most likely felt sick from hitting her head,” Deaton explained as he mixed some powders and then light them up on fire, bringing them then under Rachel’s nose. Once she breathed in the smokes, she regained consciousness but was still unable to move, her eyes moving back and forth, trying to understand where she was.

“Rachel, it’s me,” said Deaton trying to calm her down, “Everything will be okay,” Rachel tried to nod, but found herself unable to, remembering then the whole accident at the club. She still felt pretty confused and disoriented, so she closed her eyes and tried to calm down.

“How do you know about this stuff?” Derek asked him, and in that moment Stiles and Scott entered the room. “She’s going to be okay guys, let her calm down for a second,” said the veterinarian before they could even ask him, “To answer you Derek, well, I’ve worked with your mother before. I was kind of like, an advisor. She would come to me for help if she needed it, and we would work together to help her pack and the other creatures that might come here.” 

Derek exchanged a confused look with Scott and Stiles, before he spoke again. 

“What are you?” he asked.

“I’m a druid, a healer, an advisor. Every pack has one, and if you’ll let me, I’d like to help you the same way that I’ve helped your mother,” Deaton answered with a smile on his face.

Derek looked at Rachel, then at Stiles and at Scott. He hated to admit it, but he needed all the help he could get.  
He looked back at Deaton and nodded, his face visibly worried.

Hopefully he could trust the man, after all Scott did, so why wouldn’t he?


End file.
